The Myprotein range not only includes the finest quality bodybuilding staples such as: Whey Protein and Creatine Monohydrate, but are also spearheading the sports nutrition market with innovative products.

I predict that my waist will drop quicky as will my lower leg measurements as i do tend to hold alot of water in those two places

Weight

17 stone dead, recon i will lose about 7-10lbs quite quick once i start to tidy up and do cardio, again this will be water

Lifts

Bench 140 x6 Squat 204 x8 Deads 204 x6 BB Row 138 x6 OH Press 94 x9

I do other exercises but these are the 'big ones!'

will keep track of strength as i diet to try and monitor any muscle loss, i recon i should continue to add some strength over august as i tidy up. Not sure what will happen when diet kicks in but will endevour not to lose any strength although if i carb cycle it may depend on where in the cycle i am as to how strong i am

shoulders and tris yesterday, managed 100k overhead (cleaned it up to start) for 4 good reps then one push press, dropped to 60k and got another 6 reps. That was after seated db laterals with 22.5 for 8 reps so was very pleased.

Looking forward to hitting the cardio again, feel fat now and i dont like it. In fairness i'm in much better condition than i started my last contest prep in so i should be able to achieve much better condition, felt i was still carrying too much fat/ water last time.

By september (when i start to diet) i recon my abs should be quite visible and the lines in my quads should be there. I've got the size (for a first timer anyway) so my main goal for the show is to be as in condition as possible. This means a really long slow careful contest prep period so that i keep all of my lean mass and only lose what i've put on since the last diet.

Been doing weighted ab work throughout the bulking period to get my abs deeper, will see if that pays off by the time of the show

Will be time to change my routine soon i think, starting to plateau a bit with what i lift on some of the exercises, think i'll drop flat bench for wide dips and do inc db press first. nothing concrete yet though.

Funny but my body seems to follow 6 week cycles, if i flick through my training diary then i seem to need a change every 6 weeks or so. The only things i havent changed are mil press and squats. Both of them have kept on creeping up nicely (shouldnt have said that i'll jinx myself!

first bit of cardio yesterday - 50 mins on the cross trainer. I really enjoyed it actually, went into my own little world with my headphones on. Was going to do an hour but was running late for a client.

very impressed at you scheduling in posing practise, reminds me i better do some! dont you find , that before you're ripped, it seems pointless doing it, but when you are ripped, you dont have the energy or inclination

I think I might give that a read Toxic. I'm currently a bit of a fat sh!t, but I need to diet slowly and retain all of my strength as I compete in lifting rather than bb.

Dave: Am I right in thinking that you are doing a six day carb cycle from week five until one week out? Being 2 medium, 3 low, 1 high. So the first week the high day might be Friday, then Thursday the next week etc? I understand the the human body doesn't really know about a week being seven days, but don't you find that plays havoc with the rest of your life? EG Missus saying, "I thought Friday was your high carb day. I've made you this big meal!" Cue massive argument, especially since you're dieting and so will be ratty anyway. I find if I change training days it causes all osrts of confusion at home!

Would it be detrimental to the diet to make it fit a seven day cycle? Only it would help your real life as you could have a high carb day at the weekend or something. Just wondering.

The reason that i chose to do it over 6 days was that i always train the same bodyparts on the same day i.e. monday is chest bi's, tues is legs and so on.

If i cycled the carbs over 7 days then i would always have low carbs on some of the days and higher carbs on the others meaning that some parts would get worked harder than others as the energy is there!

I am guessing that it will cause a bit of havoc with the gf but then i'm more worried about winning than being miserable at parties! lol. Anyway she wont mind when i win and in a few years time i'm in the universe!

Would be different for you i guess, you are into lifting rather than BB so you could be less extreme when you diet, simply opt for healthy options if you are out for a meal etc then eat clean the rest of the week, no need to cycle carbs and all that rubbish!

Toxic - I've read that mate, cheers.

Liz - Its sad but i wont do it with my top off until i'm in condition, i just go through the mandatories with my clothes on. Pointless from a how do i look point of view but i recon it helps with vascularity and condition plus gets your body used to holding the poses.

Once i get happier with the condition i will do it in trunks and practise my actual routine as well, hoping that should be from around about 6-8 weeks out

Thanks for the explanation Dave. It makes perfect sense really; you don't want, for example, always to eat lots on your leg training day in case your legs get massive as you have more energy to train them than anything else.

I think I just need to eat a bit cleaner (less of the fun extras) and do a bit more cardio on non-training days. That's how I usually get into shap, but I am interested in carb cycling. As you say though, probably not best for me.

Good luck for the comp Dave. I have a lifting comp on 27th Nov, otherwise I would come and give you a shout. If you do see me there, it'll be because I am injured and can't lift, in which case I will be in a rat!